Between 2021 and 2024, which states did Americans already living in the United States move into, and which did they move out of — measured per 1,000 residents, with international arrivals set aside?
- 1Idaho+55.7 per 1,000 (+111,459 people)
- 2South Carolina+54.7 per 1,000 (+299,962 people)
- 3Montana+44.6 per 1,000 (+50,720 people)
Does not measureThis measures net moves per resident. It does not measure whether a state is a good place to live, and nothing here explains why anyone moved.
The highest, the lowest and the method →In which jurisdiction does the median job pay the most in raw dollars, before any adjustment for what it costs to live there?
- 1Washington, D.C.$91,540
- 2Massachusetts$63,590
- 3Washington$62,990
Does not measureThis is a NOMINAL wage. It is not adjusted for the cost of living, and this file holds no price-level, rent or regional-price-parity data, so the adjustment cannot be made here at all — neither on this page nor by the reader.
The highest, the lowest and the method →Which US jurisdictions authorise the most new housing units per 1,000 workers?
- 1Idaho2.0 units per 1,000 workers
- 2South Carolina1.7 units per 1,000 workers
- 3South Dakota1.7 units per 1,000 workers
Does not measureThis counts permission granted, not buildings finished. A permit is an authorisation in the Census Bureau's residential building-permits series; some authorised units are never started and none of them are followed to completion here, so a high rank means paperwork cleared, not that anything stands.
The highest, the lowest and the method →Which state governments collect the least tax per resident?
- 1Alaska$2,279 per resident - no individual income tax
- 2New Hampshire$2,393 per resident - no state general sales tax
- 3Florida$2,719 per resident - no individual income tax
Does not measureThis measures state government tax collections only, divided by population. It does not measure what anyone pays, and it does not measure total tax burden.
The highest, the lowest and the method →Which state economies are built around an occupation the rest of the country barely has, and which look like everywhere else?
- 1Washington, D.C.122.81× national — Political Scientists
- 2West Virginia46.62× national — Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- 3Montana35.57× national — Gambling and Sports Book Writers and Runners
Does not measureThis ranks distinctiveness and nothing else. A location quotient measures only how unusual a state's employment mix is against the national mix — it says nothing about whether the work pays well, whether it is growing, whether it is safe, or whether the state is prosperous.
The highest, the lowest and the method →Which states added more residents through births than they lost through deaths, and which ones did not?
- 1Utah+27.10 per 1,000 residents
- 2Alaska+18.91 per 1,000 residents
- 3Texas+17.10 per 1,000 residents
Does not measureThis is not a birth rate and not a measure of how well a state is doing.
The highest, the lowest and the method →When a machine goes looking for a state government's data, which states answer and which return nothing?
- 1Vermont88 / 100 — portal live (data.vermont.gov), 10 datasets, 3 feeds
- 2Washington86 / 100 — portal live (data.wa.gov), 7 datasets, 3 feeds
- 3Virginia84 / 100 — portal live (data.virginia.gov), 21 datasets, 2 feeds
Does not measureThis is CEFA's own measurement, taken in a single month (September 2026), not a federal statistic — no BLS, Census or BEA series stands behind it, and it cannot be checked against one.
The highest, the lowest and the method →Where these disagree
The seven lists were built independently and they contradict each other constantly. 19 of the 51 jurisdictions appear among the highest on one of these lists and among the lowest on another. 39 of the 51 reach some list’s top ten, so a page that wanted to call almost any state a leader could find a list here that says so; 5 jurisdictions hold the 7 first places between them. Averaging these into one score would mostly measure how the averaging was done.
These are not contradictions to be resolved. They are seven different questions, and a jurisdiction can honestly sit at one end of one and the other end of another. The widest case above is Washington, D.C.: ranked 1 of 51 on Where the typical job pays most and 51 of 51 on Where the Most Housing Is Authorised. Both figures are measured the same way for every jurisdiction. Neither is a verdict on the place.
That is not a hypothetical concern. The composite index on this site was tested against where Americans actually move and turned out not to predict it at all, while a single one of its inputs — housing authorised — predicts it strongly. See also the verified findings.
What Applied America does with this. Applied America, a nonprofit division of CEFA, carries public priorities to projects that get built. These rankings are part of the published record those priorities are drawn from; none of them, read alone, says where a project should go. A state or regional office with a priority starts at Identify Development Needs.
